When I was a kid I was already fascinated with data. I would leaf through the yellow pages and wonder how it helped people connect. I lived that dream and now it's no longer just about connecting, but searching and getting found. This blog is about my work as a "stitcher". There's so much we could do here at home and I am just plain happy whenever I manage to stitch people together.(Oh, BTW everything here is my personal opinion.)

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Digitalfilipino Club had a hands-on tutorial on Google Adwords and Adsense for its corporate and SME members. A diverse group of businesses attended, from travel, payment system, gift services to butterflies.

The long session made us all hungry! Before heading off to my next meeting I had a hefty steak lunch with with Janette Toral (Digitalfilipino), Abby Ongyanco-Lim (Virramall.com) and Charles Gaw (The Wedding Library, Mall of Asia).

Friday, December 08, 2006

I was invited by Donald Lim (President, Yehey.com) to be a guest in their 10th year anniversary. I felt a warm, fuzzy feeling during the event and remembered using Yehey a lot back when I was in school. After my short speech (see below), I hosted a game where contestants had to spell Google using their body.

Thank you Donald for the warm welcome (and for calling me a goddess!!! haha).

Speech (but I only read out half of it)

Yehey.com is what made internet in the Philippines very pinoy. Pangalan pa lang Pinoy na pinoy na, don’t you think?

Like Larry and Sergey, the founders of Google, the creators of Yehey.com made Yehey for the same reason – to aggregate information online.

This goes to show that Filipinos are indeed very creative, di lang pampamilya, pang-isports, pang-showbiz, worldclass IT professionals! Why? Because even before there was Baidu, Asiaone, Paran and Google… there was Yehey! Kaya sa Yehey, saludo kami sa inyo!

I personally salute and give thanks to Yehey.com for three things:

One, I managed to finish my papers and researches back in college, searching for information using Yehey.com.

Two, Yehey.com is where I learned the importance of website marketing. Sa Yehey ko natutunan ang search engine marketing. I remember the black bus ads they had plying EDSA and this served as my inspiration for the bus ads I had for LUK4 early this year. (Yes I even asked the bus operator to research how many buses Yehey had!).

Three, Yehey.com has made internet in the Philippines an equalizer. They showed to us that anyone, anywhere, anytime can get information.

Congratulations to Yehey.com for taking on the cause of getting Pinoy information online.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Attended the induction of the officers and pioneer members of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines held at Bed (or Bedspace?) at Greenbelt, Makati City. I was invited by it's chairman, Donald Lim, President & CEO of Yehey.com a few weeks ago when we met up.

IMMAP is a milestone undertaking which I believe will help shape the future of the internet and mobile marketing industry. They have a lot of ideas on what to do and will be doing their first planning session on December 16.

During the event I met up with my Women in Web buddies Janette Toral (Digitalfilipino.com), Abby Ongyanco-Lim (Virramall.com), Janette's sister, Jherlie who I had a chance of working with when I was still with DPC Yellow Pages, Yehey folks - Jonas, Eugene, Elaine and Jay. Met some of the IMMAP directors and officers like Norelyn Babiera (Fiera de Manila - who I worked with for some events), Arthur Policarpio (Global Wireless Connections), Mon Duremdes and Elmar Gomez (MobileArts) and Creissa Gutierrez (Tincan Mobile). Plus members of media from Writers Edge, Manila Bulletin and Business World.

And then I bumped into long-time colleague and friend, John Cuaycong. Couldn't believe it's been 5 years since I started full-time working for the internet industry and John was instrumental in getting my feet wet on online advertising (or was it a baptism of fire?).

The event had a warm, fuzzy feeling about it. The host was addressing everybody as "geeks, nerds, nagpapaka-geek, nagpapanggap na geek" and gave recognition to the fact that members of this industry are "magagaling".

Sunday, November 26, 2006

I was a speaker at the Women in Web, Wireless and Outsourcing Seminar sponsored by Digitalfilipino.com and YOSSN.com. It was a delight to meet business owners and SEOs from the different provinces we went to. The event was a follow-through of the One Internet Day activity led by Digitalfilipino.com a few months ago and concentrated on educating business owners on putting their businesses online, doing e-commerce and website marketing through offline and online means, and, of course, Google.

School Tour

I also went around visiting schools in CDO, Davao and Cebu and managed to meet up with graduating computer science students of the Ateneo de Davao. I spoke about Google products and opportunities for internship and full-time jobs in Google.SEO Philippines

I also met up with members of SEO Philippines based in Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Cebu.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I would like to invite you to a business forum session sponsored byDigitalfilipino.com on Women in Web, Wireless, and Outsourcing where I willbe speaking about Marketing Your Website. The sessions are from 1 to 5 p.m.on the following dates:

I was expecting that the seminar would only have about 20 participants. Much to my surprise there was close to a hundred! And if that wasn’t enough, some classmates and people I’ve worked with in the past (EYP and Center Mart days) showed up. They were surprised also to see me.

I spoke about marketing one’s website and utilizing Adwords to drive traffic to your site. Of course, everybody enjoyed the game where I gave out Google shirts.

I was afraid I was going to be late for my 11 a.m. appointment with Janette’s workshop for website marketing. Good thing I got in 5 minutes before 11. Quezon City’s really a looooong ride from Paranaque. Anyway, I managed to squeeze in a short talk on the importance of putting one’s business online and using Adwords.

I was the keynote speaker for SEO Philippines’ Beercon 2006. The gathering was the launch of their second contest. I gave away prizes (chocolates in lieu of t-shirts, shipment delayed arggghhh…) and invited all the members to be Google Advertising Professionals. On the way out I was surprised to meet executives from Inq7.net and the Philippine Internet Commerce Society.

Attended Digitalfilipino.com’s forum on “Lessons Learned in Selling Products and Services. It was the first time I introduced myself as Google’s Philippines Country Consultant. I met quite a number of people including Jay, founder of Titikfilipino.com, Jovell, founder of Pinoydelikasi.com, Abby of Virramall.com, Roy, GMA’s Newmedia. They were the speakers for the forum.

After the forum I managed to chat with Janette and met other members of Digitalfilipino.com. Attached is a photo I found posted online by Angelo Racoma.